Stephen Harper has been prime minister for nearly a decade, giving him by far the most experience of his political rivals. But as the campaign for the Oct. 19 election gets underway, the Conservative road to victory is far from smooth.

An 11-week federal election campaign was triggered Sunday morning by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, kicking off what is expected to be the costliest campaign ever, and the longest in more than a century.

Zimbabwe has linked a Pennsylvania doctor to an investigation into illegal lion hunting, naming him on Sunday as a client of a safari operator accused of breaching regulations, a week after an American dentist was accused of illegally killing the country's most famous lion, Cecil.